After Effects: Apply motion tracking to a scaled layer

Question

After effects 10.5 (CS 5.5)

I have two clips

• a layer with a smoke wisp curling up, much bigger than it will appear
• a layer with some slightly shaky footage of a broken machine just sitting there

I want to make the smoke wisp curl up from the machine, scaled to the footage.

The current set up:

• the footage with the machine is the main footage
• I've made a Tracker in that layer tracking the machine… the positions look right
• the Tracker targets the smoke

The problem is:

• if the smoke clip is scaled properly, the tracking motion on the smoke is not visible
• I discovered this is because the tracking is applied before the scale - so the differences in position become tiny

I speculate a solution might involve having the Tracking information applied to the smoke layer AFTER it's been scaled.

QUESTION(s):

1. how do I get the Tracking information applied to the smoke layer AFTER it's been scaled?
2. …or am I doing this wrong? If so, how would I achieve this effect?